


Death Comes to Us All

by sparkeythehamster



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bonding, David de-aged, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 02:11:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15876339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkeythehamster/pseuds/sparkeythehamster
Summary: After being struck heavily on the back of the head, David awakens to find himself on Spooky Island in the body of his younger self. He and Jasper finally get a chance to talk things out.Note: David does not actually die in this, more of a coma thing.





	Death Comes to Us All

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be a part of a longer story, but it works as its own self contained one-shot as well.

“Shit!”

David was faintly aware of the “language” reprimand that left his lips, as his vision swung in and out of focus.

Max was leaning over him, Nikki and Neil just beyond his shoulders. What? Why were they there? The events of the last five minutes were all a little vague to him. He’d set off to find the three missing campers when Gwen had pointed out that they were missing from the Mess Hall. He’d walked a little while… but in what direction?

“David!” That was Max’s voice again, sharper this time, toned with panic, and for a few seconds clarity returned, but it was only temporary, and the faint dullness started to return to him.

Something had hit him hard on the back of the head. His neck hurt, and he could feel the back of his skull throbbing faintly.

“Nikki go and get Gwen!”

Max was worried.

David tried to speak, to smile, to reassure him that everything was fine, but he simply didn’t have the strength to do so, nothing seemed to be working properly. It was… funny? That was an odd way to describe it, but David couldn’t help but find the whole sensation rather amusing, perhaps that was just his body’s way of compensating for the pain.

Max’s mouth was moving, and his small hands reached out to seize David by his shoulders, giving him a firm shake, but no sound reached the Camp Campbell Counselor’s ears, and even Max’s face was being swallowed up by the swelling fog.

The fog grew darker and darker, until David found himself in complete blackness, completely numb to everything in the world around him. His last thoughts before slipping into unconsciousness were to ensure that Max, Nikki and Neil were properly reassured when he woke up. After all, they had all looked rather frightened about something.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been unconscious, but when his eyes snapped open again it took him a good minute to figure out where exactly he was.

This wasn’t the forest around the camp, it wasn’t by the lake or in the Counselor’s Cabin either.

“Spooky Island?” David reached down a hand to support his weight, as he heaved himself back to his feet. At least it had been his intention to do so, but, the umber haired Counselor found himself frozen in shock.

His voice? What had happened to his voice?

And more importantly, why did his hand feel like it was supporting less weight than usual?

Glancing down, David let out a yelp of surprise. His legs were too short, and, while he was still dressed in his familiar brown shorts, jacket, and green shirt, they all appeared to be smaller than usual. The only exception to this was the folded up yellow shirt around his neck, that acted as a scarf, that now seemed to swamp his neck with the amount of material.

Regaining control of his limbs, David jumped to his feet and glanced down at himself. He was smaller. In fact, he was incredibly small, even by child standards and…

He reached up to clasp at his own thin throat. It was almost like… but that was impossible…

Glancing around wildly, for some way of disproving this ridiculous thought that had entered his head, David sprinted wildly over towards a small creek, leaning over the edge to search out his reflection.

What he saw stunned him even more than his apparent shrinking problem. He saw nothing.

Concern was quickly turning into fear, as David scrambled back away from the water, his breathing coming in hot and heavy gasps. What was going on? What was he doing here? The kids… the kids, didn’t they need him? Max…

The fearful look in the boy’s green eyes flashed into his mind. That’s right, something had happened to scare Max and the other kids, he needed to get back to them, Gwen wouldn’t be able to cope without him. The other problems and mysteries would just have to wait until then.

Right.

Getting back to his feet once more, David set off to find the path.

He hadn’t been here in a long time, but he could still vaguely remember the route from when he’d still be a child. He just needed to find the pier, and then he could row his way back to the mainland. It would be simple, he’d get back, sort out the kids, and then Gwen could help him figure this out.

This all seemed to be an excellent plan, in fact, David had just reached the bushes that led out to the final path. The pier was in sight, and, as luck would have it, there was a boat tethered to it, just waiting to carry him back.

Pushing his way through, David took another confident step, only to find a heavy force seize him round the middle, practically hurling him back through the bushes and to the ground.

“What in the bright and colourful day was that?” The high voice caught him off-guard again, causing David to instinctively clear his throat to rid himself of it.

Perhaps he’d just tripped?

It seemed unlikely, but David tried once more to make it to the boat. It was no good, once more he found himself thrown backwards into the bushes. He tried again, this time digging in his heels as the force tried to throw him back, and he even made it a couple more steps, before the pressure, like an elastic band, flung him back among the trees.

Each time he was thrown back was painful, but none of the branches or the hard forest ground seemed to graze or bruise him.

“It won’t work.”

David had been about to make a fourth attempt, legs tensed, and stomach clenched as he prepared to fight his way through the invisible force that was determined to keep him here.

“Kid I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re probably dead.”

Dead?

No. That couldn’t be right. He was fine, he felt fine, and he needed to get back to the Camp.

He turned, searching for the source of the voice, unaware of the way the hairs on the back of his necks twitched in familiarity at the swift and upbeat tone.

There was a boy watching him from the other side of the small clearing, tufty sandy blonde hair puffed up against his head, curious blue eyes that widened when the two of them finally locked gazes.

As Max might have said, no, fucking way…

“Jasp?”

David was the first to find his voice. All thoughts of death, the camp and his shrunken limbs simply ceased to exist, as his mind was occupied entirely with the boy standing before him, a few inches taller than himself. He knew that face. It was a face that had been burned into his memory forever, chains that tied him to his guilt. That one mistake he’d made as a child that had cost him the dearest friend he’d ever had.

“Davey… How… I mean… I thought you’d grown up?”

“I did… I mean I have… I mean…” No, this was too much to process.

He could feel himself beginning to hyperventilate again, “What… is… happening?” He managed to gasp out, green eyes wide and fearful. He couldn’t tear them from Jasper, he was terrified of what this all meant, while at the same time scared that he’d lose the other boy again if he blinked even for a moment.

Jasper however, moved forward, grasping him tightly by the shoulders.

The motion however, seemed alarm Jasper more than him, as the sandy haired boy released him quickly, staring down at his own hands with shock, eyes widening before he seized hold of David in a constrictive and unrelenting hug, practically lifting him off his feet with the force.

“Davey you don’t know how good it is to see you again. I’ve wanted to tell you for so long how sorry I am about what happened that day. I was so determined to bring Campbell down, that I didn’t stop to think about how much that place meant to you.” David felt warm tears against the side of his face where Jasper’s cheek was flushed against his own. “I’m so sorry!” The words turned into sobs, and then hiccups as David uncertainly wrapped his arms around the boy.

Jasper was crying, he had to comfort him.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have left you, and I should have listened to you… you were right, about all of it. I wanted to tell you that moments after I left, but I never got the chance before your parents picked you up and…”

Jasper pulled out of the hug, although his hands were still firmly fixed around David’s upper arms, as if he were afraid that the contact couldn’t be regained if he let go.

“My parents picked me up?”

“Y-Yes?” David blinked in confusion, “Mr Campbell said…”

But he was cut off as Jasper began to laugh, fresh tears falling from his eyes as he shook his head, dropping his head down against David’s chest.

It took him a little while to recover, before straightening up to look David right in the eye. “He told you my parents picked me up? He didn’t tell you that…” And suddenly Jasper cut off, his pale eyes searching David’s, perhaps able to read the panic that was beginning to set in.

David had never been particularly book smart, or academic, but he wasn’t stupid, and pieces were beginning to fall into place. The panic rose to his throat where it began to swell, blocking off his air supply with the pressure.

“Did… Did Mr Campbell…” He couldn’t get the words out, his throat hurt too much, and just the thought of it filled him with every ugly emotion he could think of, emotions he did his best to never feel.

Light dawned in Jasper’s eyes and he shook his head, “No… I mean, not exactly. That cave, the one I went into, it was filled with gold, weapons, dynamite, and all sorts of illegal things. I knocked a light over… it set off the dynamite and…” He smiled a little self-consciously, “I think I make a pretty rad ghost though.”

G-Ghost?

“All this time… you’ve been here?” Alone.

“Well, yeah” Jasper shrugged, “I’ve tried to leave the island a few times, I even tried to visit you, just to… talk, but no matter how far I got, I was always pulled back to this place before I could pull my form together or say anything.”

Then those dreams…

David did all he could think of doing, which was to pull Jasper back into a tight hug of his own.

“If I’d have known I would have…”

“Come out here to help me pass on? Keep me company?” The boy chuckled, reaching out one hand to ruffle David’s hair, “Well you’re here now… although not exactly under the circumstances I hoped for…”

“You mean I’m dead?” The word slipped out before he could stop it, his brain firmly rejecting the idea almost to the point of causing physical pain.

Jasper, a hand still on David’s shoulder, circled him carefully. And then a twinge of emotion flickered through his eyes, and David couldn’t tell if it was relief or disappointment.

“No, you’re not dead… at least I’m pretty sure you’re not, you don’t seem as… dead as me, your body must still be alive.”

“Then… why am I not in it?”

This was an answer he doubted Jasper had the answer to, and he didn’t blame the boy for only shrugging in response.

He wasn’t dead. Okay, that was one thing to be positive about, that was a very good thing to be positive about, and that meant he should be focusing on the more important things at hand.

“What can I do to help?”

Jasper blinked, “Help?”

“Well yeah. You need help moving on, don’t you? That’s why you’re still here?” The least he could do while he was with Jasper was help him move on in peace, go on to whatever life there was beyond this, if there was any life at all… was ‘life’ even a word you could use to describe dead people?

“I… Davey, you don’t have to do that for me. I don’t even know what’s keeping me here. I thought it was my dying wish to apologise to you, but those other kids passed on my message and I’m still here…”

Message?

Jasper must have caught the quizzical look, because he smiled again. “I’m sure they told you, they seemed like good kids.”

Suddenly, the memory came back to him. The weird and awkward reassurance Nikki, Max and Neil had given him that night after he’d seen Jasper.

“They did… Wait… you’ve spoken with Max, Nikki and Neil?”

“A couple of times” Jasper nodded, “I also helped out a kid dressed like an astronaut, didn’t get his name though.”

A hand was still grasping his arm, and that was when David realised that Jasper was honestly afraid to let him go. How long had it been since he’d been able to hold onto someone like this?

Uncertainly he placed his own small hand over Jasper’s in reassurance. “You’ve been lonely out here?”

That was the part about this that hurt the most, and there was so much David would have done if he’d been aware of this sooner, if he’d only managed to get out to Spooky Island, rather than avoiding it like the plague.

“A little… I’ve had visitors from time-to-time, and those old guys come here all the time…” Jasper pulled a rather uncomfortable face as he said this but refused to elaborate when David asked him curiously why that was. “You still haven’t answered my question,” Jasper cut across him, “Why do you look like a kid again?”

Well that would explain a lot. The higher voice, the short limbs.

“And…” Jasper gave the shirt around David’s neck a small tug with his free hand, unconsciously using a little too much force that cause both boys noses to collide painfully, before the slightly taller of the pair swung them back so he could properly examine the garment. “Isn’t this one of mine?”

Heat spread to David’s cheeks, as he pulled the yellow shirt away. “It… I found it in our tent, I didn’t know it was…”

“It’s got my name on it?” Rather than being annoyed, Jasper actually sounded rather amused by the whole thing, grinning as David’s blush intensified. “Same old Davey, minus the attitude, not quite sure yet whether or not that’s an improvement…”

David felt the hand around his arm tremble a little, but then the conviction of the grip returned.

Even if he wasn’t dead, even if there was a chance he could return to his own body any moment, David felt a reluctant tug in his chest at the thought of leaving Jasper alone again.

The way the other boy held onto him, the touch of another so unfamiliar to him, it was heart breaking to think that this could be the last chance Jasper had to touch another human being.

Unable to resist, David pulled him into another hug.

“When did you get so huggy Davey?” There was a chuckle to Jasper’s voice, but he fixed his arms tightly around the shorter boy’s thin frame and held him back.

“You’ve missed a lot” was the muffled response from his chest. “I’m all hugs and positivity now, no arguments, no fighting.” He’d modelled himself so much on Jasper, at least, on the Jasper who had inspired him so much, before all the unfortunateness had taken place.

The next hour was filled mostly with David catching Jasper up on everything he’d missed at the camp, including Mr Campbell’s arrest, the endless tales he had of the things Max and the other kids put him through, and of the way he’d tried to instil a love of camping into a new generation.

Neither of them were sure how long they had, and so David was determined to fill the silence with something.

All the while Jasper kept a firm hold of his wrist, fingers occasionally brushing out across David’s own hand as he listened to every detail of the stories the other boy told him. The grip tightened when David told the story of how Mr Campbell had tried to frame him, and, as the aged-down Counselor turned he caught a deep and burning rage in Jasper’s eyes, that caused him to move on quickly to the next story.

But at the end of the hour, when David had told all the stories he could think of, they found that they were still sitting together on the dark forest’s floor.

It was beginning to get dark, and David was beginning to feel rather tired. Perhaps that was the deal with only being part ghost, he still got sleepy like a normal person. He yawned widely, catching Jasper’s attention.

“Oh.” The sandy haired boy shook his head, “You need to sleep, I know somewhere…”

“The mansion?” David questioned, rubbing at his eyes.

“Absolutely not” was Jasper’s simple and firm reply.


End file.
